GARY Bowyer believes City can find another gear in their Valley Parade showdown with leaders Luton tonight.

Their fight to beat the drop was boosted with victory over Peterborough in Bowyer’s first game at the helm.

But now they face the biggest test against a side who have not lost in the league for five months.

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Bowyer, though, feels his players can rise to the challenge because they are enjoying football again.

“You win games and people come in with smiles on their faces,” he said. “From last Monday when we came in, that’s what we asked them to do.

“We did a debrief yesterday morning on the Peterborough game and one of the things that came out was that the players enjoyed playing the football that they did. That’s massive for me.

“We had the physical stats back and they were unbelievable in terms of the energy the players put into the game.

“The two go hand in hand. If you’re running harder, you enjoy it more.

“Sometimes we forget that you’ve got to go and enjoy the challenge, enjoy competing against the person you’re up against and trying to come out on top.

“For the last five or six months I’ve been walking round shopping centres on a Saturday doing everything else, I know I certainly loved it on that reason alone.

“I’m excited because there is more to come from them and that’s the message we’ve given them. We want to demand a better performance if we can.”

Luton are unbeaten in 23 league games, despite losing manager Nathan Jones to Stoke in January.

Bowyer is impressed with the job that Mick Harford has done in caretaker charge – but not surprised to see the Hatters blazing a trail on the way to successive promotions.

He added: “It comes from the forward-thinking club that they are and the planning that’s gone into it.

“They’ve got permission for a new ground and they recently moved into a new training ground that’s their own. You look at elite performance in organisations and it’s being run properly.

“It’s no surprise then that you can put things in place to build on it year in, year out.

“The fact they’ve been together so long and been through what they did getting promoted out of League Two, they’ll have the experience.

“With someone like Mick in charge, he’s seen it and done it with everything and won’t allow for any messing about.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game but it’s one the players have got to be excited about.

“We think we’ve found areas where we might have a chance against them so we’ve got to work on that.

“But we’ve got goals in the team. When you’ve got that, you’ve always got a chance in the game.”